Arts & Photography, Tourist Destinations & Museums 

The opening of the Musee d'Orsay was a major development in the history of French museums. The national collections from the middle of the 19th C to the early years of the 20th -- up until 1986 split between the Louvre, the Jeu de Paume, the Palais de Tokyo and other museums -- were brought together for the first time in this marvelous building that was once the Gare d'Orsay.

The collections provide a unique survey of that extraordinarily rich and often contradictory period of art history. From Ingres, Delacroix and Corot in their later years to the early years of Matisse and fauvism, the museum shows an exceptional range of the official art of the period -- from eclecticism to naturalism and symbolism together with the major innovations of the impressionists, post-impressionists and Nabis. The collections are by no means limited to French painting. Whistle can be found alongside Manet, Klimt and Munch alongside Bonnard.

This book was created under the direction of Michel Laclotte, Inspector General of Museums, in charge of the progreamme and presentation of the collections of teh Musee d'Orsay and ists opening. While he retraces in his introduction the history of the collections and explains the chronological choices adopted, the authors -- curators at the museum -- analyse the pictorial creation of this period in all its richness and variety. - from Amzon